Sterling had one of its most difficult days of the year falling to 5 year lows to buy Euros with Sterling and record lows to buy US Dollars following an issue in Asian trading overnight on Thursday. Suggestions are that an algorithm which looks for negative Brexit news caused a huge sell off for the Pound which even saw GBPUSD rates at one point go to 1.18 on the mid market level.

Turning the focus to GBPEUR rates they fell below 1.10 for the first time since 2011 and at the moment there seems to be little or no support for Sterling exchange rates against both the Euro and the US Dollar.

The economic data that has been released following the UK’s vote to leave the European Union has generally been rather positive and typically we would see the Pound gaining vs the Euro but Sterling’s movement seems to be driven by political uncertainty.

Chancellor Philip Hammond has urged for calm in the foreign exchange rates and said yesterday ‘we are going to go through a period of volatility, there will be lots of commentary going on and we can expect to see markets being more turbulent over this period and we should prepare for that.’

This is hardly reassuring comments from the Chancellor and arguably it could be said a weak Pound is helping the UK economy so I think we could be in for further falls for the Pound vs the Euro towards the end of the year.

If you’re in the process of buying a property in Europe over the next few weeks and are worried about what is happening to exchange rates then it may be worth looking at buying a forward contract which allows you to fix an exchange rate for a future date.

Having worked in the currency markets since 2003 I am confident of not only being able to offer you competitive exchange rates compared to using your bank but also help you with the timing of your currency transfer. If you need to buy or sell Euros and would like further information or a free quote then contact me directly Tom Holian teh@currencies.co.uk

Comments

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